Dracona
by Rebellious Faerie
Summary: To Lena, a young human from another dimension,the X-Men are nothing more than fictional comic characters. That is, until she literally drops in on them. To the X-Men, Lena becomes the glue that holds them together. I suck @ summeries, rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: This is my first attempt at writing an X-Men fic. All constructive criticism is deeply appreciated. By the way, I am not really caught up with Marvel at this moment so please excuse any details, such as certain missing characters or events that are missing. Thanks!**

Lena Carter slammed the door to her house after coming home from work. She was, needless to say, incredibly pissed off at the moment. This was the fifth time she had been turned down for a teaching position and it made no sense to her. Those who had interviewed her had used excuses such as her being too young for the job, or they wanted someone with more experience in the field.

Lena collapsed into a chair after carelessly throwing her purse into a corner and kicking off her shoes. She sighed as she replayed the last couple of visits in her head. She had applied for three jobs as a musical theatre teacher and two as art teacher, all at high school level. Each and every time she had been turned down despite the fact that she had degrees for both of the subjects as well as for teaching. She couldn't understand it.

Reaching back, Lena pulled out the clip holding her hair in its bun. Wavy blonde hair with natural red highlights streaked through it spilled behind her down to her lower back. As she ran her fingers through it, she smiled slightly. Her hair was her main vanity and she didn't care who knew it. It had taken her years to grow it out as long as it was and she had no intention of cutting it. Lena sighed once again as she forced herself to stop admiring her hair and return to the problem at hand.

"Oh well," she muttered. "I guess I just have to keep looking." Her stomach took that moment to express its dislike of not having food since early that morning. With one last sigh of self-pity, Lena moved out of her chair and into the kitchen.

Her house was large, too large for one person, added loneliness into the air that she despised. It reminded her of the recent departure of her ex-boyfriend, who had left her after three years of being together. The thought of him made her even more bitter than she already was.

Lena wretched the door of the refrigerator open with more force than necessary and grabbed a can of soda before slamming it shut again. Making her way into her bedroom, she threw herself onto the bed and grabbed the remote to the television. Viciously she began to punch buttons, looking for a channel that would help sooth her mood.

She paused at the kid's channel, a cartoon reminding her of the unfinished project stuffed in a sketch book underneath her bed. Putting her soda down, she rolled over onto her stomach and leaned over the bed's edge. Upside down, she peered under the bed skirt. The sketchbook lay there amongst an array of drawing pencils and pastels. Reaching forward, she grabbed it.

The sketchbook contained numerous drawings, all in a comic book style of drawing. She had always been interested in animation and while her degree was for teaching, it didn't stop her from playing around at home. Currently, she had doing sketches of superheroes she spotted in the windows of a store down the street that sold comics. Looking back up at the television screen, she smiled.

The cartoon was an animated version of X-Men. When she was younger, she had loved the X-Men comics and much of her free time was spent learning how to draw each and every one of the characters perfectly. Lena decided that perhaps it was time to see if she still had a knack at it.

Lena didn't bother to switch channels as she began to draw. She really didn't mind the cartoon and since no one was there to see it didn't matter anyway. She continued to sketch to the sounds of X-Men battling it out on the TV.

It was several hours later when Lena finally pulled herself out of the trance that always seemed to set upon her while she worked. Groaning from stiff muscles, she stretched, wincing as pain shot through her neck and arms. The X-Men had long been over and had switched to one of the more annoying cartoons that Lena despised. She turned of the television and picked up her sketch to examine it.

The drawing was of the White Queen, Emma Frost. It was more realistic than most of her drawing but she didn't mind that. The woman's head was held high in regal arrogance and her hands were propped on her hips in annoyance. She was dressed in her traditional White Queen costume which consisted of skin tight white pants and a more than revealing top and cape. Lena smiled slightly. It wasn't too shabby for her being out of practice with that kind of drawing. With one last stretch, she got up and went in search of the food she had meant to grab earlier.

Lena stared out of the window into the darkness of the street as her meal warmed up on the stove. She hated this time of night. The silence and the darkness frightened her and always had. Now that she lived alone, her imagination also sometimes got the best of her. Knowing it would be several minutes before her dinner was cooked, Lena decided to go upstairs and change out of her clothes into something more comfortable.

Trading slacks and blouse for a pair of worn and faded jeans and a blue halter-top, Lena felt herself beginning to relax. She trotted down the stairs toward the kitchen.

She had almost reached her destination when movement out of the corner of her eye made her pause. A young man, in his early twenties stepped out of her living room into the hall. Startled, Lena jumped and was unable to suppress a scream.

"Lena," he said, his voice a light tenor. "It's okay, its me." He held up his hands to show her meant no harm.

Lena took in his light brown eyes and dirty blonde hair. Of course she recognized him instantly, now that her heart wasn't jumping into her throat. Her blue eyes narrowed.

"John, how the hell did you get in here?" she asked, not bothering to hide her anger at the man who had left her weeks ago. He held up a key and Lena cursed. She had forgotten he still had a spare key to the house.

"Get out," she snapped. "I don't want to see you."

"Lena." He took a step toward her. "Please, I've missed you."

"Like hell," snapped Lena. "This is coming from the person who left me for some slut he met at work."

"Lena, that's over now," he stood only several feet in front of her. She glared.

"And so are we." Lena could feel the rage building up in her chest, and it was surprisingly uncomfortable. In fact, it almost hurt. John reached forward and attempted to draw her into a hug. She moved back, knocking his hands away. "Don't touch me."

"Listen to me," he begged.

"No you listen to me," she snarled. The vehemence in her voice surprised even her. "Here you are, barging in here like you own the place, which I will remind you that you do not, and asking me to forgive you after all the hell you put me through and you expect me to go along with it and welcome you back with open arms? There is no fucking way I am going to through that again so I suggest you turn around and walk right back out of that door."

Lena put a hand on the wall to balance herself. She was suddenly finding it hard to breath. It was like her anger was choking her. John, took this moment to approach her. She suddenly found herself being kissed roughly.

Rage bloomed in her chest and she shoved the man back into the wall with surprising force. She couldn't believe that he could have the audacity to come back uninvited, try to convince her to get back together with him and then kiss her!

"Get out." she hissed. Her voice was dangerously low. John backed away from her.

"Lena I_"

"Now."

"Lena, you're being_"

"Get out!" Lena screamed.

What happened next was completely inexplicable. A small explosion sounded in their ears. Heat pressed in on them from every side and flames, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, rose up around them.

Lena screamed as the flames licked her skin. Through smoke and fire, she saw John flail through the fire toward the door, yelling for help. Lena collapsed on her knees as flames welled up and consumed her. Searing pain wracked her body, making her scream.

Then suddenly, it was gone. The flames, the house, the pain, everything. She was staring up at the clear blue sky. It was day time. The sensation of falling hit her, and Lena twisted around. To her horror, the ground was far below her and that made her scream all the louder. The last thing she saw was the sight of the ground rising up to meet her before she blacked out.

The X-Men stood outside of the mansion, enjoying a Saturday afternoon while the students played and swam in the pool. It was not often that the faculty had a chance to relax and do to that reason they were even managing to get along.

"Their seemingly abundant amount amounts of energy never fail to amaze me," commented Jean. Some of the X-Men chuckled.

"Especially in this heat," said Bobby.

His comment made his teammates laugh all the harder. Due to his mutation, Bobby was susceptible to sunburn and heatstroke more so than the others.

They sat in silence for several more minutes when they began to notice that the children had stopped their running around and had gathered into a group. The all seemed to be pointing and staring at something in the tops of the trees surrounding the mansion.

"Wonder what's got their attention," grunted Logan. He sat on one of the steps, a cigar in one hand.

"Ah don't know," replied Rogue, her eyes fixed on the students. "Maybe it's_"

"What the hell is that?" Emma's voice stopped Rogue in mid-sentence. The former White Queen stood up and raised a hand to shield her crystalline blue eyes from the sun. She was looking at the sky above the mansion. The other X-Men turned their gazes heavenward and for a minute wondered if Emma Frost had finally cracked. Then they saw it.

It was so small, one could hardly see it. A small, swirling disk of what appeared to be fire whirled above them. It began to grow, veins of fire reaching out, covering up the sky's blue.

At this point, the children had begun to run back toward the mansion and their teachers. The X-Men didn't blame them. Suddenly, with a sound that sounded like the crack of a whip, the disk exploded. Fire spread outward, sparks and embers falling toward the ground and slowly fading as they cooled. The X-Men had all fallen into battle stances out of habit and instinct.

As the fire disappeared, a small figure fell from its depths. As it began to plummet towards the ground, a scream reached their ears.

"Oh my God," gasped Jean. Ororo leapt into the air, her winds carrying her at top speed toward the falling figure.

In a matter of seconds, Storm had caught the person around the waist. The ear splitting scream had cut off when the person realized that they were no longer plummeting to their death. As Ororo neared the spectators in front of the mansion, they could see the person, a woman, twist around to look at her rescuer. The shrieking began again as the woman began to writhe in Storm's grasp, causing the weather goddess to lose altitude at an alarming rate. A last violent twist sent both women tumbling to the ground where they landed in a tangled heap about fifty feet in front of the X-Men.

As the adults ran to their aid, Ororo struggled to her feet.

"Storm, are you okay?" questioned Jean, concern etched on her face for her friend. Ororo nodded.

"I slowed our fall, but if I had stayed in the air longer I would have dropped her." Everyone turned to look at the woman who had decided to literally drop in so unexpectedly.

She was lying on her side, facing them. She had curled her body up into a ball, arms hugging her knees tightly and her entire body was trembling violently. They could hear her sobbing, but her face was hidden by a curtain of gold hair highlighted with streaks of red that glowed a fiery copper color in the sun's light.

Hank kneeled down beside the woman and gently tried to get her to stand. At his touch, she lifted her head, her hair sliding off of her face. Wide, tear filled blue-green eyes looked at him.

"Can you stand?" he asked gently. "Are you hurt?" The woman's eyes widened even more, her jaw dropping in shock.

Looking around her for the first time, her face seemed to pale a little more at the sight of each new face she set her eyes on. Horror, a little bit of fear and overwhelming amounts of confusion clouded her eyes.

"What's the matter?" asked Emma, her tone as sarcastic and emotionless as ever. "Never seen mutants before?" The woman looked at her. Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"B but you a aren't s sup pposed to exist," she stuttered. "X-Men a aren't r real."

Everyone stared at her in shock. How had she known they were X-Men? What did she mean they weren't supposed to exist? They looked at each other, the same question in everyone's eyes.

Who the hell was this woman?

**Please, please, please, puh-lease review! I also like suggestions as to where you think this story should go.** :)


	2. Author's Note

Hey everyone. I sincerely apologize for the lack of updates on this story (any story actually). I have been in a recent production of Les Miserables and it has taken up the better part of 6 months of time. I'm so sorry and I hope to get another chapter up soon. Also special thanks to dreamer84, tardislove, and CaptMacKenzie for your reviews.


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